In June 2003, Senator Mitch McConnell proposed new legislation
banning all imports from Myanmar (a.k.a. Burma). This strike
against the country’s ruling military junta will likely have little
impact on the isolationist regime, reports Nelson Rand of Asia
Times. While sanction supporters believe that trade
restrictions will effectively damage the Burmese government,
opponents argue that sanctions will only punish the nation’s
350,000 impoverished textile workers. ‘U.S. unilateral sanctions
have a poor record with regard to advancing U.S. foreign-policy
goals,’ notes Harry Clark, an American lawyer and export-control
law expert. Meanwhile, Steve Lamar, senior vice president of the
American Apparel and Footwear Association, believes that sanctions
are essential. ‘Engagement is preferable, but it is clear that this
is a regime that does not respond to the norms of engagement.’ The
proposed legislation would also expand Myanmar visa blacklists,
freeze junta leaders’ assets, and direct American representatives
of international banks to oppose lending to Burma.
— Erin Ferdinand
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Myanmar: The Case Against Sanctions
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Related Links from the Utne Archive:
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